By
The Associated Press
DUBLIN, Ireland - Brian Cloyne lifted a pint of smoldering black stout to his eye, contemplated its murky mystery against the light, then took a dramatic gulp.
"In these dark days, you have to savor every pint of Guinness like it's your last," the painter told laughing workmates during a lunch break.
Things aren't got quite that dire yet, but yesterday's strike by workers at Guinness breweries throughout Ireland had pub owners and patrons alike wondering when the stocks of the country's most famous drink might run dry. The guess is sometime next week.
More than 1,000 workers shut down plants in Dublin, Waterford, Kilkenny and Dundalk, a border town to the north where Guinness plans to shut a packaging plant later this month. The strikers are demanding that the Dundalk plant remain open, saving 150 jobs.
Guinness executives suggested the closure might be delayed - but also warned that if the strike goes on for long, the strikers' own jobs might be in danger.
Pat Barry, the company's chief spokesman, said Guinness could lose up to $18 million in sales per week if the strike lasts more than a week.
Such losses, he said, would "call into question the need for certain operations in Ireland, because if we don't have the business to put into those breweries, then we have to question our position."
A Guinness-less Ireland seems hard to imagine for those who most love the drink, a sweet brew based on roasted barley and Wicklow Mountains water. The company founded by Arthur Guinness in 1759 today runs breweries in more than 50 countries, and sells some 20 variants of the stout in 150 countries.
But those closest to the tastes of modern Dublin pub-goers predict that Guinness stands to lose more than the fickle public. Some pubs have stockpiled extra kegs to last them several days without fresh supply, but after that?
"They'll find something else to drink," said Kevin Dooley, a barman at Fagan's, a favored haunt of Prime Minister Bertie Ahern on Dublin's north side, where the Guinness is served in both its traditional lukewarm and modern ice-filtered variants alongside a half-dozen other draft beers.
Dooley said the pub had prepared as best it could, ordering about 30 extra kegs of Guinness, as well as extra kegs of the breweries' other products: Harp lager, Smithwick ale, locally made Budweiser and others.
"We could only do so much, because there's nowhere to put it, really," said Dooley, who estimated that the pub sells about 80 kegs of Guinness on busy weekends, such as Easter.
Though Irish-style dark stouts have been losing popularity as Ireland's young turn to less heavy drinks, Guinness remains the stout king. Ireland's two underdog stout labels, Murphy's and Beamish - both brewed in the country's second-largest city, Cork - hope to exploit the strike to increase their paltry market share. Currently, Fagan's sells about five kegs per week of Beamish and none of the sweeter Murphy's.
"We might stock Murphy's if the worst came to the worst," suggested Dooley. "But things would have to get pretty bad. And people don't think the strike will last that long. If it does, Guinness will lose some customers, but we won't."
The painter Cloyne suggested he'd accept no substitute.
"I couldn't stand straight on my ladder without this pint right here," he said, triggering more laughter from his table mates. "Get me my Guinness or I'll end up like Moses wandering in the desert."
